


Headache

by bette (ferns)



Category: Justice League of America's Vibe (Comics)
Genre: Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Established Relationship, Father Figures, Found Family, Gen, Kinda, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Off-screen Relationship(s), Post-Canon, Trans Male Character, Vomiting, bc thats my SHIT yo, feat. dale having a crush on santino, platonic forehead kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 13:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11738343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/bette
Summary: Dante Ramon gets drugged and ends up in Dale Gunn's house. It ends up a lot better than anticipated.





	Headache

**Author's Note:**

> god i love dale and casey and dante so much.....god i love them _so much_.
> 
> warnings for nonconsensual drugging (for the purpose of a kidnapping), mentions of rape (none actually occurs/was planned to occur, but Dale worries), the lack of safety that comes with not taking someone whose been drugged to the hospital, and vomiting. as usual, let me know if i should warn for anything else!

Dale can hear the distinct sound of somebody crying. And it’s definitely coming from inside his house.

His first thought is Casey, but as soon as he sits up and looks over at his husband two things are clear-one, that he’s definitely  _ not _ crying, and two, that he can hear it too. Dale’s already reaching for his gun as he stands up, getting out of bed and creeping into the hallway.

_ There’s someone standing in his living room. _

Dale presses flat against the wall and sidles closer to the living room before flicking on the lights and aiming his gun.

A sobbing Dante Ramon squeals in surprise and jumps backwards, tripping over his own feet and landing flat on his back.

Dale sighs and puts the gun down. “What are you doing in my house, Ramon?”

Dante pushes himself up onto his hands and tries to stand, only to wobble and fall forward again. “I dunno,” he slurs, and that’s when Dale realizes something’s  _ wrong.  _ “I didn’t-I didn’t know where else t’go n’ your husband gave me the keys before we left last time so I wouldn't’ break another window tryin’ to get in.”

Dale sighs again. Of course Casey had given him a key. “Let me see your eyes.”

Dante squawks a little and crawls backwards, bumping into one of the living room couches. Dale kneels down in front of him and put a hand on their side of his head to keep it still, using his thumbs to lift up Dante’s eyelids. Both of his pupils were enormous, although one of them was visibly larger than the other. “What happened to you?”

“Guy. At a bar.” Dante hugs his shoulders. “I think-I think he wanted to get to Cisco? He must’ve put somethin’ in my drink and-and-”

“Take a deep breath,” Dale advises. He feels a rush of compassion for the kid. “Why didn’t you go back to your house?”

“I dunno. What if he goes after Cisco?” Dante starts crying harder, and Dale shook his head. “What if he knows who Cisco is? What if he’s gonna go n’ get Cisco n’-I can’t let my brother get hurt, Agent Gunn, he keeps getting hurt n’-n’-”

“Casey,” Dale calls loudly, interrupting Dante’s babbling, “can you come out here? It’s just Dante Ramon.”

Dante rubs at his eyes as Casey came out of the bedroom and knelt down in front of him beside Dale. “I’m glad you used the keys this time,” he says warmly, “instead of breaking another one of our windows. Your brother was nice enough to fix it last time.”

Dante cries again. “I don’t want Cisco to get hurt.”

“Casey will call him and let him know to be on the lookout,” Dale says in an attempt to soothe him. “You had to have been drugged recently, otherwise you would be unconscious.” It was probably something common like  Rohypnol or GHB. Dante wouldn’t be worth getting anything rarer than that even if they were after Cisco-he was only human, after all, not a meta. “Do you remember what bar you were at?”

Dante furrows his eyebrows, makes a face like he’s thinking, and throws up on Dale.

Casey immediately vanishes, probably heading to call Cisco. He’s always been emetophobic. Dante wipes at his mouth. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to do that. ‘M sorry.”

“Stay here.” Dale stands up. “I’m going to get something to clean this up.”

Dante stays, continuing to wipe at his mouth. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but Dale only seemed to take two seconds in the kitchen getting paper towels and when he returned he was blurry and distorted around the edges. When Dante tries to point this out, another wave of nausea washes over him and he covers his mouth with both hands.

“Do you know if you got a concussion?” Dale asks carefully, wiping at Dante’s shirt. “Lift your arms above your head so I can get your shirt off. It needs to be washed.”

“I dunno what a concussion feels like,” Dante mumbles as he obediently lifts his arms, giggling a little. “I just feel  _ awful.” _

Dale’s just grateful he hasn’t gone back to crying. Although he’s pretty sure it’s going to happen at any second. When he tugs off Dante’s shirt (god, it’s like dealing with a five year old, although he can’t really blame Dante for that-being drugged is terrifying, especially when you don’t know what the other person was planning on doing to you) and sees what’s underneath and how it got thrown up on too, he sighs.

“Take your binder off, it’s got vomit on it too.” That’s going to be a nightmare. “I’ll get you another shirt.” He has to change his own, anyway, since Dante’s thrown up on it. He stands up again. “Just put it next to your dirty shirt when you’ve gotten it off.”

Dante’s still trying to squirm out of it when Dale gets back, wearing a new shirt and carrying one for Dante. He’s making pitiful squeaking sounds.

“Do you want my help?” Dale asks him. It’d be funny if Dante hadn’t been drugged and mumbling incoherent phrases under his breath.

Dante nods frantically, trying again to pull the binder off over his head. “Please Agent Gunn I can’t get it off it won’t come off please get it off I haven’t gotten stuck in it since eighth grade help me get it off I can’t get it off.”

“Calm down. Take some deep breaths,” Dale advises as he helps Dante out of the binder. “Here’s a clean shirt. Do you think you’re going to throw up again?”

He revises his original assessment of whatever drug was used to dose Dante. It would’ve kicked in by now if it was Rohypnol or GHB. Could’ve been something new, or something rarer, or… Any number of things, really. Dante would  _ probably  _ be fine, but… That was a big  _ probably  _ and it would be best to take him to the hospital. A nano-nurse wouldn’t do anything to help someone who’d been drugged. They were for open wounds or internal injuries only. They didn’t help with druggings or with diseases.

Dante doesn’t answer, and Dale looks at him only to realize that Dante’s passed out after putting on the shirt that Dale gave him (which is so big it looks like it’d go down to his knees if he stood up while wearing it). Maybe it was one of the faster acting drugs after all. “Alright, kid,” he murmurs, picking him up and realizing that it feels like Dante’s actually  _ lost  _ weight since ARGUS’s Detroit branch was destroyed, “it’s okay. You’re gonna be okay.”

Against his better judgement, Dale carries him to his and Casey’s bedroom, setting Dante down on his side of the bed. Taking Dante to the hospital would probably be better, but… He honestly wasn’t sure if the Ramons could afford that. Santino worked, and so did Cisco, but all of the money Cisco made was going toward college. And health insurance was a joke.

Dante groans a little, reaching out and grabbing Dale’s shirt in his fists and trying to pull him on top of him. But Dante isn’t even close to strong enough to manage that even when  _ not  _ drugged, so he mostly just ends up tugging weakly. Dale sits down beside him and smooths his hair back absentmindedly. Dante probably didn’t have a concussion, at least, otherwise Dale would’ve stopped him from falling asleep-the strange pupil dilation had probably been caused by whatever drugs he’d been given.

Dale isn’t so sure they were really after Cisco. Cisco would have to be warned and told to stay on the lookout, of course, and that is what Casey was most likely currently doing, but… Dante’s attractive enough and he’s not very strong. Someone could’ve seen him at a bar and decided to have some fun with him with no motives involving Cisco whatsoever.

Neither option is ideal, but… Dale finds himself almost  _ hoping _ that whoever did it really was after Cisco. It’s not right, Cisco’s just a kid and of  _ course  _ Dale doesn’t want him to get hurt, but Cisco’s one of the most powerful beings to ever exist. He can take care of himself, and when he can’t, Cindy can.

Dante likes to  _ think  _ he can take care of himself, but pretty much everyone who’s ever spent any amount of time around him knows that that’s not true.

“Hey.” 

Dale looks up at Casey as he hears him come in. “Don’t worry, I made sure to put him on my side.”

Casey hugs him from behind. “I told Cisco what happened and that we’d let Dante stay here for the night. He wants to see him, but I told him it’d be pretty much useless since he’s already asleep.”

Dale carefully adjusts the blankets covering Dante up. “...He’s a good kid.”

“Tell him that once he wakes up,” Casey tells him. “I’m sure he’ll be delighted to hear it. He trusts and looks up to you a lot more than I think you realize.”

Dale looks at him disbelievingly. “I don’t think Dante looks up to  _ anybody.” _

“He came here instead of going back home, didn’t he? It must’ve been  _ incredibly  _ hard to get away  _ and  _ get far enough to feel safe, and he chose to come here.” Casey kisses the back of Dale’s neck. “I know it was probably just because it was closer than home, but… He trusts us even though he’s only known us for a little bit.”

Dale messes with Dante’s hair again. It gives him something to do. “True.” He remembers Dante rasping out that he never doubted for a second that Dale would get him out in one piece. Remembers how heavy Dante felt on his shoulders, how he got blood on Dale’s coat. “...Do you think whoever did this was really after Cisco?”

Casey shrugs. Dale can feel him doing it. “Maybe. It’s possible.”

They sit in silence for awhile before Dante groans and reaches up again, grabbing at Dale’s shirt for a second time. “Mmph.”

Casey snickers. “I think he wants you to lie down next to him.”

Dale glares at him halfheartedly. “He’s drugged, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing.”

Casey’s phone chimes and he checks it. “That’s Cisco. I’m gonna call him again, I’ll go back in the other room.”

Dale watches him leave. It feels… Strange, having Dante like this in their home. Sleeping on his side of the bed. He’s already started thinking of Dante and Cisco as  _ his.  _ Maybe not his kids, not yet (he can’t think of them that way after what happened to his daughter), but… Soon. One day.

He used to let his daughter sleep on his side of the bed when she was sick.

_ No.  _ What had happened to his daughter had been what caused his first marriage to collapse, not that it had been much of a marriage in the first place. He’d met Casey a few years later in the CIA, and they hadn’t started talking about kids.

Besides, Cisco and Dante already had a father. One who loved them and cared about them.

One that neither Dale nor Casey could look in the eyes without stammering, something that has absolutely nothing to do with how blushy Santino gets when he’s proud or how loud his voice was when he got excited or-no. That was  _ Cisco’s dad  _ and Casey and Dale weren’t middle schoolers anymore, they were married  _ adults _ and they could handle their feelings.

Something possessed Dale to bend down and kiss Dante’s forehead before messing up his hair again and moving to leave. It didn't seem like he was going to get any sleep tonight. “Sleep tight, kid.”

* * *

Later, Dale discovers that Casey had finished talking to Cisco just in time to get a picture of him kissing Dante’s forehead.

Dante is delighted.

**Author's Note:**

> if you're wondering, the drug is fictional (although it has similar qualities to Rohypnol/Flunitrazepam, it just takes longer to kick in) and was supposed to just knock Dante out without all of the other side affects. however, he had a bad reaction to it.
> 
> and he got away by kicking the guy trying to lead him to his car so hard he's pretty sure something broke and then _sprinting_ away before the drug had a chance to really take affect.


End file.
